Almost Hope
by steam66
Summary: What twisted horrors occur at the Roboticizer, and what are we to stop it? One-shot, based in Sonic SatAM universe.


_ALMOST HOPE_

_System log: I do not own Sega or anything in the Sonic franchise._

Tails was scared. Just ten minutes before, he had become separated from the rest of the Freedom Fighters in the depths of Robotropolis. Tails panicked as soon as a lone SWATbot spotted him, and was unable to escape the mechanical soldier. Dr. Robotnik had thrown him into the cell personally. Tails dimly smiled to himself, thinking about his hero, Sonic, sending a punch right into the fat dictator's gut. But that was to happen after the war was over, and as far as Tails was concerned, that wasn't going to happen very soon.

Suddenly, two SWATbots and Robotnik's nephew Snively appeared at the door of the cell. The door swung open and a SWATbot entered, the second outside the cell with its gun drawn. Robotnik was taking no chances, it seemed. "You will come with us. Robotnik has.. _plans_.. for you." Snively stated. Tails caught a faint look of disgust on the small man's face. Evidently, he was just as hateful of Robotnik as Tails was- but resistance would mean death, so he complied.

As the two SWATbots dragged Tails along, Snively walked ahead and allowed a scanner to identify him. The scanner beeped happily and flashed a green light, as the chamber door opened. Suddenly, the light in the chamber came on. There stood a tall cylindrical tube, with steel top and floor, wires and machinery dotting the exterior. Control panels surrounded the machine, Dr. Robotnik standing at the largest.

"Oh, I'll have _so much fun_ doing this, _furball._" Robotnik gloated as the SWATbots dragged Tails closer. Suddenly, Tails had a very distinct realization about what exactly the machine was. He started kicking and screaming, futilely attempting to break free of the SWATbot's grip. It did not succeed. The roboticizer opened, and the metal soldiers stuffed Tails inside. Before he could rush out and make a break for it, the roboticizer snapped shut.

Robotnik pushed and rotated several buttons, firing up the Roboticizer's components. The machine's internals glowed soft green, illuminating the terrified fox's fur. Suddenly, Robotnik reached for a large, red lever on the center of the panel- and yanked it down. The machine began to whine, and the glow intensified. Tails was aware of a very distinct tingling in his feet.

His shoes metallicalized and merged with his feet, becoming white-and-red boots. As the transformation spread up past his knees, they turned to hinged joints, reinforced for reliability. At the waist, his body grew a new joint, letting him rotate his upper body 360 degrees. Tails lost all feeling in his lower body, as it turned into circuits and motors, metal and wires. His tails became multi-jointed blades that were tipped at the end with jets and sawblades. The metal spread up to his chest, turning his white chest fur into a white-painted access hatch on his body.

At that moment, Sonic burst into the chamber, murder in his eyes. Reflexively, Robotnik pressed a button, raising the spot he and Snively were on to another room via hidden elevator. The SWATbots were not so lucky. Sonic spun right through them, reaching the control panel. He fiddled and pressed buttons, attempting to reverse the process. Little did he know, the control panel was locked, due to Robotnik's escape sending an emergency signal.

Sonic turned to look at Tails, who stared at him in pain and hope. By now, only his upper head was left unchanged. His brain became a modern CPU unit, and all of a sudden he had his senses back.

_Sonic is here, he'll save me, he can always save people at the nick of time! I know he won't fai-" _Tails never finished the thought as his memories were wiped at the end of the process. New data streamed in, with name, instructions, and rank. At that point, Tails was dead. There was only T4-1L5, a Robian fresh off the assembly line.

Sonic stared at the tiny robot as the roboticizer whooshed open, its deed complete. He stopped the foxbot's march out of the chamber and fell to his knees, hugging the robot, tears streaming down his cheeks. T4-1L5 only stared in confusion at the organic's strange display, and attempted to move itself further. Sonic weakly tried to keep holding on, but the robot broke free and marched towards the factories, intent on constructing more robots.

When Sonic returned to Knothole that night, he didn't wisecrack. He didn't congratulate everyone on the successful mission. With Tails not tagging along, everyone knew what had happened before asking. Oblivious to their pain and misery, T4-1L5 happily worked away at Badnik construction, never knowing of the plight of the Freedom Fighters, only work…

END OF STORY


End file.
